Armlock couldn’t afford to hire the luxury car in their new video. The owners let them sit in it for an hour or two instead, which turns out to be the perfect image for ‘Lifer’: a song about borrowing confidence from someone who has more of it than you, and seeing how far it gets you.

The single is the first taste of the Melbourne duo’s third album, ‘Amazing’, released on 5 February 2027 through Run For Cover Records. Simon Lam and Hamish Mitchell will take it to the US the same week, with five shows including Boston’s Something In The Way Fest.

The band say ‘Lifer’ came out of a period of stripping things right back:

We’ve written a lot of simple songs, but ‘Lifer’ might be the most straightforward song we’ve ever made. Around the time we wrote it, we became a little obsessed with using really plain, unpoetic lyrics. That probably came from a series of long and complicated conversations happening in real life at the time. There was something soothing about trying to boil down messy thoughts into the simplest words possible. The chorus kind of says everything the song is trying to say. It’s about finding confidence in someone else’s confidence, moving forward, and who you’re doing it with.

The track ripples like a stone thrown across a still pond, rich in texture, shimmering. It may be described as simple, yet there is a richness that is enticing and immersive.

The video is entirely home-made, shot on a day off in Los Angeles with touring bassist Geography.

We wanted to use a luxury car and Hollywood as a symbol of prosperity, and an overly positive omen for the future.

Aspiration on a budget, in other words, and it suits a song that refuses to dress itself up.

Lam and Mitchell are hardly newcomers. They met studying jazz at Monash University, bonded over electronic music and spent years in dance and electronic projects including I’lls, Couture and Kllo. Armlock was the moment they deliberately made themselves beginners again, writing with guitars for the first time. Lam says:

It was like ‘ok, we’re gonna make guitar music because we don’t really know how to do that and it will be an exciting challenge’

Mitchell adds:

Even now I would say my main influence for Armlock is just physically playing the guitar – it’s still so foreign to me, not like piano where I know my way around, so I’m always discovering something on the instrument itself.

That curiosity has served them well. 2024’s ‘Seashell Angel Lucky Charm’ drew attention. Since then they have toured hard, playing with Snail Mail, The Momma and Belair Lip Bombs and filling a string of slots at The Great Escape in Brighton last year. Two singles, ‘Strobe’ and ‘Half Time’, followed, and both appear on ‘Amazing’. Lam has also been busy behind the desk, producing Juice Webster’s new album ‘Kind of Fantasy’ (reviewed here).

The new record is pitched somewhere between Pinback’s lean alternative rock, Alex G’s restless indie and the hazy “cloud-rock” drifting out of Copenhagen. Lyrically, Lam is circling the quiet panic of youth giving way to adulthood.

A lot of it is about the future. Trying to build a life because you can feel that change is impending – it’s sort of like a race against time to get yourself set up, to burn through the habits of your twenties because things are getting serious. But how do you keep the flame alive at the same time?

It’s a good question, and two musicians who chose to start over on an unfamiliar instrument are well placed to answer it.

Stream ‘Lifer’ here. Pre-order ‘Amazing’ here.

Armlock US tour, February 2027

‘Amazing’ tracklist

Side A

1. Lifer
2. Half Time
3. Nectarine
4. From Here On
5. Amazing

Side B

1. Crystal
2. Did
3. Strobe
4. Kiss
5. Air

‘Amazing’ is available on hot pink “First Run Club” vinyl (indie stores only, with a poster and label sampler CD), nectarine vinyl, CD and cassette.

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